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Halo Again. The Saint Is Back

Someone's prayers have been answered. Dark Horizons is reporting news from LeslieCharteris.com that a two hour pilot for a new Saint television series is in pre-production.

James Purefoy has apparently signed up for the role of Simon Templar, following in the footsteps of George Sanders, Roger Moore and Val Kilmer.

This is a pleasant surprise, as the last I'd heard of any movement on The Saintproperty was several years ago, and then all went quiet.

We haven't seen The Saint since the 1997 film starring Val Kilmer. Although that film had very little to do with Leslie Charteris' character it was a fun action film in the mould of the Mission: Impossible films.

James Purefoy has become very popular lately: Since Rome, he has attached himself to Solomon Kaneand now The Saint. Not bad for a man who was fired from V for Vendetta.

My guess is that he was holding out for James Bond and since Daniel Craig got the part instead, he decided to look for employment elsewhere (but that's just me thinking out loud).

As much as I welcome this news, I'm also disappointed that Val Kilmer never got a chance to return to the role. Kilmer's version of The Saint was quite successful, making almost $70 million, ten years ago. However, I feel that maybe The Saint's natural home is on television.

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The new pilot/ TV movie will be filmed in Berlin and Australia in April.

It will be produced by William J. Macdonald, Geoffrey Moore (son of Roger) and Jorge Zamacona.